Verizon fires back at T-Mobile with new unlimited data plan

'Unlimited' up to 22GB... no restrictions on HD video or tethering

Verizon will begin offering an unlimited data option to customers starting today, five years after abolishing them from its network and following several efforts to kick users off grandfathered plans. The new plan includes unlimited data, talk and text for $80 — or $45 each for four lines — with no video streaming restrictions, 10 GB of hotspot usage, and calls to both Mexico and Canada with Verizon Unlimited.

Those prices are “introductory” and require both paperless billing and AutoPay to be enabled.

Like most unlimited offerings Verizon’s new plan also comes with a caveat: It’s not technically unlimited. The carrier promises “fast LTE speeds” up to 22GB on any given month, but past that threshold it reserves the right to "prioritize" data behind other customers in times of network congestion.

This has become standard practice on all networks that offer unlimited data plans — T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T all warn of similar limits. That said, 22GB is likely enough for most people, and puts Verizon in a more competitive position against T-Mobile for data hungry customers.

T-Mobile’s unlimited 4G data plan is $70 a month for the first line, the second at $50 and additional lines up to eight in total are only $20. That’s considerably cheaper when you factor in the fact that all sales tax and regulatory fees are included in the price — whereas they likely aren’t with Verizon — but on the flip side T-Mobile charges extra to allow HD video streaming and tethering.

Verizon Wireless ceased offering unlimited plans to new smartphone subscribers back in 2011. The company’s CEO had declared unlimited data is both unnecessary for customers and unfeasible for any carrier. It brough back a form of unlimited last year in the form of PopData time-based add-ons that allow. Users to enjoy an occasional spike in data usage without having to worry about your data cap.